Dark Pact: must make a dark pact with an evil god or powerful evil outsider.

Fallen Paladins: The forces of darkness love it most when they can corrupt what was once good. Former paladins gain a special bonus when becoming blackguards. They can convert levels in paladin to those in blackguard, once they qualify.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Blackguard is proficient with all simple and martial weapons. Blackguards are proficient with all armors and shields.

Table: The Blackguard

Level

Base Attack Bonus

Fortitude Save

Reflex Save

Will Save

Special

1st

+1

+2

+0

+0

Dark Pact, Dark Gaze, Dark Blessing, Death Touch

2nd

+2

+3

+0

+0

Aura of Fear, Smite Enemy 1/day

3rd

+3

+3

+1

+1

Lord of Darkness

4th

+4

+4

+1

+1

Smite Enemy 2/day

5th

+5

+4

+1

+1

Aura of Despair

6th

+6

+5

+2

+2

Smite Enemy 3/day

7th

+7

+5

+2

+2

Aura of Desecration

8th

+8

+6

+2

+2

Smite Enemy 4/day

9th

+9

+6

+3

+3

Aura of Undeath

10th

+10

+7

+3

+3

Heart of Darkness, Smite Enemy 5/day

Class Features

Dark Pact: The blackguard loses his Leadership feat as he surrenders any cohorts, special mounts, familiars, animal companions and followers to the dark ways. These must be sacrificed and animated as undead. Once accomplished, the blackguard cannot ever benefit from the Leadership feat or any of these other bonding/comp abilities, he is totally dedicated to evil. He may lead armies, but they will either be undead or follow him out of sheer terror. The blackguard has totally broken with all he once was; his humanity all but stripped from him. From this Dark Pact, the blackguard gains the Command Undead ability as a cleric of level equal to his character level (not just his blackguard level). This also applies to animating undead, his caster level for this spell equals his character level. This does not stack with previous powers, but overlaps and replaces them. He can use this power 3 + his Cha bonus in times per day. Command undead is a supernatural ability.

He also has a special pact with all undead of evil alignment. Undead of evil alignment will not attack a blackguard under any circumstances (even if commanded to do so), and this pact is broken for a particular undead if the blackguard attacks that undead creature. The blackguard is now vulnerable to holy water.

Finally, his pact allows him to cast spells of the Necromantic School, those from any school with the [Evil] descriptor and spells of the Evil Domain. These spells can be from any spell list. He casts these spells as divine spells. He follows the spell per day progression of a cleric of level equal to his blackguard level, has a caster level equal to his blackguard level, gains bonus spells for high Wis and cast spells based on Wis. This spell progression does not stack with existing or future cleric levels gained (except the caster level will stack as normal), so it is treated separately.

Dark Gaze: The blackguard gains Darkvision 60’ (or increases existing darkvision ability by 60’) and any target he gazes upon gives him the information he would receive if he cast Detect Evil, Good, Law and Chaos and concentrated for 3 rounds. This requires concentration to use, has a 60’ range and only gives information about the target gazed upon.

Dark Blessing: The blackguard applies his Charisma modifier (if positive) as a bonus to all saving throws.

Death Touch: The blackguard gains the ability to channel negative power through any melee or touch attack he makes. He can channel up to a total of his blackguard level x his Cha modifier in inflict damage in this way each day, as a free action when used in combination with a melee or touch attack. He may divide up these points of inflict damage as he sees fit over the day.

Aura of Fear: The blackguard radiates an aura of fear out to 10’. All enemies who fail a Will save DC 10 + the blackguard’s level + his CHA are affected as by the Fear spell. Those resisting this aura are immune to that blackguard’s aura for a full day. Aura of fear is a supernatural ability.

Smite Enemy: The blackguard gains the ability to smite enemies a limited number of times each day. When used, the next attack made gains a bonus to hit equal to the blackguard’s Cha modifier and does additional damage equal to his blackguard level.

Lord of Darkness: The blackguard can use a command undead attempt to animate dead. The dead must be within his command radius (60’) and line of effect. A single command attempt can animate a number of HD worth of undead equal to the highest HD the blackguard would effect with that command attempt. The blackguard can also control a greater number of HD of animated dead than normally allowed as well as a greater number of HD of commanded undead than normally permitted. He can control half his blackguard level (rounded down) x the normal HD limits in both cases. Thus, a Cleric 10/Blackguard 10 would normally be allowed to control 40 HD of animated and 20 HD of commanded undead. This blackguard would be allowed to control 200 HD of animated and 100 HD of commanded undead.

Aura of Despair: The blackguard radiates a malign aura that causes enemies within 10 feet of him to suffer a -2 morale penalty on all saving throws. Aura of despair is a supernatural ability.

Aura of Desecration: The blackguard radiates a continuous Desecration spell effect out to 10’ radius. In addition to the usual effects, the aura also defiles holy water in its effect. If the holy water is in the possession of another, or hurled at the blackguard as an attack, it receives a Will (using the Will save of the one who threw or possesses it) save DC 10 + the blackguard’s level + his CHA modifier to avoid the effect. Holy water resisting this effect is immune to that blackguard’s aura for a full day. Aura of desecration is a supernatural ability.

Aura of Undeath: The blackguard radiates an aura of Undeath out to 10' radius that makes all living creatures within it extremely uncomfortable. Fast Healing, Regeneration, Healing spells and Life/Restoration powers do not function within the aura. He is now vulnerable to turning (but not commanding) and benefits from inflict powers that act as healing for him while healing effects now harm him. He gains a turn resistance equal to his Cha modifier. He is treated as undead for all purposes (detection and special spell effects) but is not undead, and gains none of the undead immunities. At this point, if the Blackguard is slain, he cannot be restored to life except as an undead creature. Aura of Undeath is a supernatural ability.

Heart of Darkness: The blackguard, up to this point, may have been redeemable, but at this point, the blackguard is irrevocably evil and cannot ever be redeemed. His soul is now irrevocably sold to evil. He becomes an Outsider [Evil], and gains a DR 15/+1, and if slain (assuming his soul is not otherwise imprisoned) reforms on the home plane of his evil god or outsider power as a Death Knight forever under the power of his evil patron. He can only be truly slain if the slayer knows the true name of his patron and it is invoked through a wish to prevent his return in this way.